Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, also known as The Meaning of Life, is a 1983 musical-sketch comedy film by the Monty Python team. Unlike Holy Grail and Life of Brian, this film's two immediate predecessors, which each told a single, more-or-less coherent story, The Meaning of Life returns to the sketch comedy format of the troupe's original television series, loosely structured as a series of comic sketches about the various stages of life; but unlike their first film, And Now For Something Completely Different, which was a compilation of various Flying Circus sketches, this film was composed from entirely new and original material by the Pythons.

Plot

The film begins with a stand-alone 17-minute supporting feature entitled The Crimson Permanent Assurance (directed by Terry Gilliam). A group of elderly office clerks in a small accounting firm rebel against their emotionlessly efficient, yuppie corporate masters. They commandeer their building, turn it into a pirate ship, and sail into a large financial district, where they raid and overthrow a large multinational corporation.
The film itself opens with several fish in a restaurant tank, performed by the Pythons. They look on and see one of the fish, Howard, being eaten by a customer, and then start to ask themselves about the meaning of life.
The film proper consists of a series of distinct sketches, broken into seven chapters.